Amit, completely agree on media reports. They were never encouraging for Alfa Romeo. But then It's more like saying unreliability of FIAT cars in India by Media reports. For Giulietta, it is sold absolutely along side VW golf/Ford Focus in the price band & people are buying it. Golf/Focus sales statistics are sky shattering if you care to notice. There could be cases but people generally having them are "absolutely in Love with them". Now Giulietta has to be a better product in every respect to manage even 1/5th of their sales if it is doing so. Thanks to the wonderful media!!

If you are willing to dive a bit deeper bypassing media reports, is it really the truth for AR? People who own Audi A3, Giulietta & VW Golf side by side, they generally state VW/Audi boring when compared to Alfa. Even reliability reports are in favor of Alfa. The same FIAT traits of Palio GT-X, the older it gets, the away it goes from the rest. There are numerous review on all auto site like Top Gear, Fifth gear, Auto car when journalists praise Giulietta all the way but end up giving 12-13 marks out of 20 for no reason but these prejudices. Whereas VW, BMW & Audi all are in 17-18 range. Immediately, You see people attacking the journalist who are first hand witness of being owners of all AR's, BMW, Audi in daily life & end up stating journalists a "A BIG PILE of CRAP":mrgreen:. Pls check at Auto-car-UK & you will be amazed to see that what people report is completely different. Not only entertaining, it sometimes gets very hilarious.
For me & you, obviously it is difficult to fathom as we don't have them in India. But for the time being at least, i would take it as driving Punto vs rest of the hatchback stuff. Alfa Romeo just lagged behind 5 yrs or so w.r.t to glory. The last launch which was not European car of the year was 159 in 2005, else Alfa had the record of registering this honor bypassing all Germans (156, 147) at their every new launch at very immediate moment. They regained it with Giulietta since NISSAN LEAF is different concept altogether if you will. They have some amazing talent when it comes to innovations & out of box thinking which can give an illusion of soul in a machine. I would appeal to give them benefit of doubt here without trusting media too much.

Enki, are you suggesting that Alfa's unreliablity was media made or that media made a big deal out of some problematic Alfa's? I suggest you go through many of the forum's where real owner's talk about the kind of problems they faced with their Alfa's. Add Fiat / Alfa Romeo's pathetic attitude backed by poor service and you had European owner's running pillar to post to get a solution to the problems they were facing in their car's. I hope Fiat understand's that if they are going to back up Alfa's here in India the way they have in EU then they are going to murder the brand for good.

The reason auto magazine's praise Giulietta's driving dynamic's yet give it a 12/20 compared to 17/20 to a boring Golf is because of the extremely poor residual's that Alfa's have. AR's have among the industry's worst re sale values & this again is because of the un-reliablity of the earlier Alfa's. There is a reason most auto expert's check the fit and finish and the way part's are screwed & built inside a Alfa. Another factor for the VW getting better marks is because of better service back up , cheaper part's , cheaper to service and let's not forget cheaper to insure.When you are running an auto magazine or a auto show on TV, you have to consider all factor's while ranking car's. It's in these in-tangibles that VW's score over Alfa's & hence they get better marks.

I wonder "does it really make sense rating a brand new Alfa as poor residuals which is barely launched"?
By the way, i have recently read an article in UK-Autocar where they have praised Giulietta to hold a very good residual value for 2 yrs old vehicle. For India, i don't think AR makes any sense till they debut C/D segment sedans. Dodge DART in AR's disguise & upcoming Giulia (replacement of 159) could be vehicles that may be launch in next 2 Yrs. At present, they hardly have any product except Small hatch "MiTo". I don't think they are even mulling AR's in dreams as of now. It could be Dodge/Chrysler though or may be they are plotting their long term plan 2014 onwards.

Also point to be noted that C-Evo platform is composed 68% of high strength steel which is unheard of in it's segment/class. Independent suspension (first of it's kind in it's segment ever) is complete mixture of magnesium/aluminum which ensures it rock hard yet light. Moreover, a new kind of plastic, Xenos, they call it, have been used which is high quality, soft touch & 80% identical to carbon fiber for it's weight & thermodynamic properties. These are official press reports &i it easily earned most secured/sturdy vehicles honor 2 yrs back. After revised rules in 2014 Euro NCAP, it will still be 5 star secured. It's so advanced than anything else for security & endurance aspects. Being very big & wide in it's class, it still weighs comparatively.

Again, it depends how deeper one prefer to dive. Such a solid stuff is expected to rattle/fall apart earlier than other stuff, i doubt. I haven't test driven it obviously but it surely looks a terrific VFM with those engines at the same price of a Golf.

Dodge Dart in Fiat's disguise for China launch.
It looks likely for this mulling that it will give birth to most logical vehicle for India, Dodge dart.
But as a FIAT or DODGE? I think it should be a "Dodge" here, what their statements reiterate.
It's launching in China as a FIAT though..
It doesn't look like the timeless Italian design but certainly attractive enough with Alfa Romeo roots. So It is from Italian bloodline only & surely has a heart/soul. Some of the pics that i found on the net. Hope they launch it with 2 ltr MJD-2:mischievous.

Well, this is interesting. Grand rally cross is the platform where C segment's heavyweights perform for the world to see & decide for the best. It was announced by Dodge yesterday that DART will be competing in 2012 GR C rally season. The vehicle, which will make its racing debut May 26 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, will be piloted by four-time Rally America Champion and 17-time X Games Gold Medalist Travis Pastrana.

Now this is genuinely disturbing details..!!
Grand Rally Cross Dodge Dart will sprint from 0 Km/hr to 100 Km/Hr in space-time continuum distorting 1.9 secs::OO.
Ewwwwwweeeeeeeee..!! You heard it right. This car is capable of jumping to higher dimensions & may be time travel.
The 2 ltr Engine makes mind bending & tongue rolling 600hp (447kW) with a four-wheel drive set-up left to deal with the 745Nm of torque:mrgreen:.
So :anyone?????Dodge Dart RallyCross: 0-100km/h in 1.9 seconds | Car Advice